Bleach: The Past

The eleventh season of the Bleach anime series, released on DVD as the The Past Arc, is directed by Noriyuki Abe and produced by TV Tokyo, Dentsu, and Studio Pierrot. The seven episode season is based on Tite Kubo's Bleach manga series. The episodes' plot follows the flashback arc of the series' storyline which retells the Visored's past. The season first aired from February 10, 2009 until March 24, 2009 on TV Tokyo in Japan. The English adaptation of the anime is licensed by Viz Media, which has announced that this season will start airing on May 28, 2011. Aniplex collected the season in a series of two DVD compilations. The first DVD volume was released on November 26, 2009 and the second on December 16, 2009. The episodes use two pieces of theme music: one opening theme and one closing theme. The opening theme is "Velonica" by Aqua Timez while the ending theme is "Sky Chord" by Shion Tsuji.